He is a B.C. man who set up shop in Mexico and has been linked to one of the deadliest drug cartels in the world.

Now John Darrel Krokos is preparing to spend at least 10 years in a U.S. jail after admitting guilt for his role in an international cocaine smuggling operation.

Krokos, who grew up in Kamloops, signed a plea agreement in Los Angeles on June 13, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

He is yet to appear in court in California to make the agreement official.

The documents have Krokos admitting he conspired to possess and distribute cocaine “beginning on a date unknown, and continuing to on or about June 6, 2012” when he was arrested in Puerto Vallarta on behalf of U.S. officials.

Other charges Krokos was facing as head of the purported “Krokos Drug Trafficking Organization” will be dropped once the agreement is executed in U.S. District Court.

Krokos faces a minimum 10-year prison term and a maximum of life behind bars.

The lawyer of one of Krokos’s 18 co-accused said in an unrelated Arizona case that U.S. agents accuse the Kamloops man of having ties to the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, considered by police to be the most powerful drug organization in the world.

A Canadian police source told The Sun that Krokos was the Vallarta-based cocaine broker for B.C. bikers.

“We believe that he was a point person for the Hells Angels in Mexico with the Sinaloa Cartel,” the officer said.

The June 13 court documents include an agreed statement of facts that lays out how Krokos got nabbed by American law enforcement agents posing as underworld figures beginning in late 2009.

Krokos arranged to purchase encrypted BlackBerrys from one of the agents on an ongoing basis.

He then distributed the devices to his co-conspirators, believing they were a secure method for arranging cocaine shipments. Little did he know he was enabling U.S. agents to monitor drug shipments for years.

“In furtherance of the conspiracy, co-conspirators, including defendant (Krokos), would use encrypted Blackberry devices to coordinate the sale and transportation of cocaine from sources of supply in Mexico … to purchasers within the United States, generally by providing the cocaine to couriers working for the purchasers,” the documents say.

Some of those cocaine transactions are highlighted in the plea agreement: a total of 96 kilograms sent north from April to August 2010 and then a further 90 kilograms transported between May and September 2011. Some of the coke was intercepted by U.S. agents.

Krokos was also involved in transferring millions of dollars in payments to Mexico, the documents state.

Gone from the agreement are allegations contained in the original indictment, dated May 31, 2009, that Krokos had ordered the kidnapping and torture of an underling who claimed U.S. authorities had seized a load of cocaine.

The plea deal, however, does say that Krokos is not eligible for one specific sentence reduction because he “was aware that serious bodily harm resulted from the conspiracy because of co-conspirators’ conduct.”

The original indictment said Krokos received a call in May 2011 saying another member of the gang had lied about police seizing 44 kilos of cocaine. As a result, the man was “punished” and his son was forced to pay a $400,000 fine.

Now 42, Krokos has no criminal history in B.C. He is believed to have left Canada about four years ago to settle in the Mexican beach city.

Before his arrest a year ago, he was living the high life in Mexico, staying at a luxury condominium complex. He was featured in snap shots with buddies, drinks in hand, poolside, and showing off his muscles at a local gym.

The U.S. court file lists a number of aliases for Krokos — Walter, Lord of the Beach, the Hulk and JJ — without explaining their origins.

Krokos’s father Gus said Tuesday that he was unaware his son had signed a plea agreement.

In a phone interview from Kamloops, he said he has received calls from his son since his arrest, but does not know specifics of the case against him.

Gus Krokos said he has never visited his son in Mexico, but had been led to believe he was employed there selling time share condos. And he was training at the gym, the elder man said.

As for allegations Krokos was a major cocaine smuggler, his dad said: “I don’t know nothing about it. I don’t know what the hell was going on.”

B.C. man linked to deadly drug cartel admits to drug smuggling

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